Irish Examiner view: We need human backup on the digital battlefield

Ireland escaped relatively lightly from malign intervention in the elections

While fake online accounts linked to the Russian state did generate anti-government messages, engagement between the Garda Security and Intelligence Service and social media providers ensured those offerings were suspended or minimised. File picture

Just before voting started in the elections there was a small spat, easy to miss, over the suggestion that Fine Gael’s European candidates were having their Facebook pages moderated in India.

The implication was that the accounts of John Mullins, Regina Doherty, Nina Carberry, and Maria Walsh were in breach of Irish electoral law which restricts the involvement of people outside Ireland.